Northleach - The Cotswold town of Northleach in Gloucestershire is located at an important crossroads, just off the roman road, the Fosse Way (A429) 10 miles north-east of Cirencester and 10 miles south-west of Stow-on-the-Wold. Northleach was at one time a great market town, celebrated throughout Europe as a major centre for the Cotswold wool trade. The fifteenth-century church of St Peter and St Paul, paid for by the wealth wool merchants, was built with stone dug from the quarry in the town itself and what is now the Market Square.
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Northleach church is beautifully embellished with carved stonework and it contains many fine memorial brasses depicting its benefactors, some of whom are shown standing on the woolsacks and sheep that made them so rich.
A view of Northleach from the church tower
The modest size of the town of Northleach belies its former importance. The Abbey of Gloucester owned the area from AD 800, granting the town a charter in 1220 to hold a weekly market. The town was transformed by the wool trade and in 1340 to 1540 it flourished as the centre of a large sheep-rearing area.
Northleach has long been linked with transport and in about AD300 the Salt Way trade route came through the town, used for carrying salt by packhorse from salt mines at Droitwich to the River Thames at Lechlade and the on to London. During the age of coach travel it was a centre for changing horses and refreshing passengers on the London to Gloucester route.
ACTIVITIES IN AND AROUND NORTHLEACH
The Wyvern Mysteries (1999) was part filmed at Northleach - Based on a 19th Century writer JS Le Fanu, about a young girl brought up by the man responsible for her fathers death. She falls in love with his eldest son. Starred: Derek Jacobi, Jack Davenport.
Touring by car - Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Chastleton House, Moreton-in-Marsh, Chedworth Roman Villa, Painswick, Sudely Castle at Winchcombe, Broadway, Chipping Campden, Burford and Bibury, Hidcote Gardens, Rollright Stones.
Walking - the area is a walkers paradise with many beautiful walks across open Cotswold countryside.
Relaxing and enjoying the slower pace of life and indulging in the English passion for tea and cream cakes in the many tea shops in the nearby villages and ancient towns whilst soaking up the ambience of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Fleming Design Company
Furniture and Furnishings for Interiors and Exterior - Turkdean, Northleach
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